Welcome to this month’s Blogorail Black Loop. Today we are sharing some of the best attraction ride vehicles at Disney.

When you’re in a hurry to get nowhere fast, the Walt Disney World PeopleMover is what you’ll want to use to do it! Operated by the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, The PeopleMover is a slow-moving 10-minute ride with just one station, in the center of Rocket Tower Plaza, located beneath the landmark Astro Orbiter. Please enter the ride vehicle and take your seat for the rest of this post:

The PeopleMover’s leisurely pace, lack of long queue lines, and the sneak previews it offers of other more extreme Tomorrowland attractions make it a favorite among repeat visitors. The first sneak peek you get is of:

A cool thing that may happen during your ride is when the lights are on inside Space Mountain. This usually happens when there is a problem with the ride system, but the PeopleMover still operates during these times. You can see the tracks of Space Mountain and how the ride was put together!

The PeopleMover’s vehicles are always moving. To board and disembark, you will have to use a large speed-matched rotating platform inside the station. Now here is the unique feature of this attraction: The trains are not powered by motors within themselves, but are propelled by a system of Linear Synchronous Motors embedded in the track every nine feet. Cool technology is always a part of Disney attraction ride vehicles!

Linear Synchronous Motor (LSM) technology is scalable and adaptable to a wide range of applications, from small transport and positioning systems to large people movers. Unlike short stroke linear motors, LSMs generate propulsive force by running current through a stator creating an electro-magnetic field that interacts with a set of permanent magnets on a vehicle to create thrust. The permanent magnets serve as the motor secondary, equivalent to a rotor in conventional motors, enabling linear motion. The magnet array and vehicle is propelled by the moving electro-magnetic field, traveling along as electric current is applied to the stator beneath the vehicle. The vehicle’s movement is regulated by a sophisticated control system incorporating state-of-the-art position sensing technology.

Got it? Get it? Good! Moving on…

Each car has its own sound system which broadcasts a continuous audio commentary and soundtrack, relative to the train’s location. The commentary points out the attractions you are passing as well as announcing promotional items.

But perhaps the best part of the PeopleMover is… the romance!

You can sit with your Significant Other and relax as the crowds and hustle and bustle of WDW fades away. And if the attraction isn’t too busy, Cast Members may let you stay on for one or two more rides around the track. Don’t be afraid to ask! And feel free to snuggle… just don’t get carried away!

The PeopleMover is also one of the few ‘outdoor’ attractions that still runs in the rain. So if the skies open up to deliver one of Florida’s famous bursts of precipitation, just head to the PeopleMover!

I hope I’ve whetted your appetite for this great attraction (see what I did there? It’s raining in the picture above: Whetted/wet? Yeah, you’re probably right.)

For more information on the best attraction ride vehicles at Disney,
check out the other great posts from the Blogorail!

The movie Cars by Pixar came out in 2006, and if scientists studied the matter, I’m sure they’d find some correlation between the number of stars in the sky and the number of die-cast models of the movie’s characters. Seriously.

And I have purchased my fair share.

But not this many!

So now in a world where every extra automobile in the cast has his own ‘action figure’ on the market, it becomes increasingly hard to find a model that stands out as unique.

It’s not uncommon to link a Disney character with Nascar or other sporting industries. I have a larger Nascar model car sporting Daisy Duck. But you have to admit: a better marketing match than Cars and Nascar you will never find! This promotion was produced in 2005.

I’m always impressed with the level of detail they are able to add to such small models! But now let’s compare Scott’s actual car with the replica I just purchased:

Actual

Die cast model

Close enough. Sporting Lightning McQueen and The King on the hood is a nice touch, but represents the only indication of Cars imagery on the model.

I haven’t taken the car out of the packaging yet. As the packaging is damaged (with the Hot Wheels stocking hook missing) is it still worth more packaged than loose?

I’ll probably unpack it and park it next to my Lightning McQueen model. Maybe they’ll race!

I almost didn’t bother buying this die-cast model car. It did picture Mickey Mouse and is an item I had never seen before. The asking price was $9.00 CAN which I thought was a bit high. So I bundled it with two other cars (thank you American Pickers) and got a substantial reduction.

They manufacture toy cars and kits, among other items. Burago focuses on quality management systems. In the past twenty years, their factories have implemented QC, QA and IQC systems, and strictly adhered to international SQL standards. Additionally, all their factories have in-house laboratories equipped with qualified testing instruments. In 2005, their factory had successfully attained the ICTI (The International Council of Toy Industries ) CARE Process seal.

The purpose of the CARE Process is: To enable the worldwide toy industry to assure consumers that its products are manufactured in safe and humane environments. To achieve this, its intent is to provide a single, fair, thorough and consistent programmer to monitor toy factory compliance with the industry’s code of business practice.

Blah, blah, blah. But at least now we know that the toy featured in this post was not cruelly treated during its manufacture!

End of box

Now let’s have a closer look at the car itself:

1/43 Scale and Made in Italy

This is likely a Fiat, although no model is listed on the toy car or the packaging. But Fiat is the biggest automobile manufacturer in Italy, so it seems at least possible. I also found this picture of an early model Fiat on the Net for comparison:

Close! Again, this is a little unusual and so worth adding to my growing collection of Disney-themed die-cast cars.

Welcome to this month’s Magical Blogorail Blue loop. Today we are sharing the must-do’s for your first Disney vacation.

Frontierland Station, as seen from the Splash Mountain queue

Get your bearings. That’s my advice to anyone who is visiting a Disney park for the first time. There is so much to do and so many things to see, it is easy to get overwhelmed! And you could fall into the trap of running from one attraction to the other trying to beat long lineups or focusing on obtaining that coveted Fast-Pass. If you do this, you will be missing out on much of the charm that can only be found by slowing down and enjoying the details!

How can you find these details? Ride one of the trains (pictured above, at WDW) for a leisurely trip around the Magic Kingdom. From the train, you will be able to see all of the key offerings of the park, like this one:

A view of Big Thunder Mountain you can’t get while riding the attraction!

And the beautiful stations and cars are just too much to be missed:

Another form of transportation that will take you around the property for an overview is the Monorail. This is my favorite way to take in all of the magic to be found in the parks and resorts.

Monorail Yellow leaving the Magic Kingdom station, WDW

The monorail is also a great way to get your bearings at EPCOT, as one of the lines takes you into the park, around Future World, past World Showcase, and then back to the entrance. Now you can disembark and know where you want to visit first!

Monorail Purple heading to the entrance via Future World

The train or monorail can give you the same introduction at the Disneyland park in California, or any of the other Disney parks that have these forms of transportation.

I mention this thought of getting your bearings first before racing to an attraction because I believe it is something that Walt intended. A bold statement, I know, but here is my reasoning: Walt wanted a popcorn dispenser just inside the entrance to Disneyland. He thought that the smell of the hot butter would be inviting and get people in the mood for what they were going to discover beyond Main Street. He hoped to get people to slow down and to give them the time they needed to put the real world behind them.

I don’t know about you, but I always breathe a huge sigh of relief when I arrive at a Disney park, and am only too ready to slow down and enjoy the experience! Try it yourself, whether you are going to visit for the first time, or the umpteenth time. I guarantee it will enhance your visit!

Walt Disney never intended the monorail to stay in his theme parks. He wanted it to be used to link major centers in California, and of course, this wish would have spilled over to Florida as well. Alas, it wasn’t to be! Light Rail prevailed and surface trains still rule the transportation world.

At least in North America.

But Walt did prove that it was a viable form of mass transportation with an unparalleled safety quotient. So I want to know why my other car can’t be a monorail!

OK, maybe the millions of dollars it would cost to build my own beamway might inhibit my plans to glide down to the corner store for a bag of milk, but a guy can dream!

Do they sell bags of milk at the Contemporary Resort?

Another cool thing about having my own personal monorail would be the ability to trick, or pimp, it out! I could paint it in all kinds of different colors, or:

The Tronorail. Mine would be a Jagorail!

Yes, my other car is actually a vintage 1987 Jaguar painted a deep burgundy, so if I could wrap that idea around my other other car (my monorail) I’d be a happy (although somewhat eccentric) driver/pilot!

Honestly…

… a leaping Jaguar on a monorail = COOLNESS!

So who’s with me? Personal monorails for everyone with miles and miles of two-way beams to take us here and there and everywhere else besides. And if it’s not too much trouble, could you pick me up a bag of milk while you’re out please?

On the Road with Mickey

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My Dreams of Disney is a Disney Fan Blog, and is not in any way affiliated with Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney, or the Walt Disney Company. In it's purest form, My Dreams of Disney is a site showcasing the love I and my family have for Walt Disney's creative genius and the legacy he has left behind. If it weren't for Walt Disney, Disneyland, Walt Disney World, the other Disney parks spread across the world, and this site would not exist. Click to view our Privacy Policy.

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